‘Fear of the cut’ forced Ann Ngirita into Germany asylum

Ms Ann Wambere Ngirita, the woman being investigated for receiving Sh59.8 million from the National Youth Service (NYS) for supplying air, was in 2014 living in Germany as an asylum seeker “running away from female genital mutilation”.

In a January 2014 interview with Märkisches Medienhaus, a publication targeting residents of Brandenburg and Berlin states in Germany, she said she was scared of undergoing the rite.

“For more than a year, she has been living in a transitional home for asylum seekers,” the publication said, adding that Ms Ngirita, who said she was aged 24, had been allowed to share her small room with her boyfriend.

But when explaining to detectives during a probe into the loss of billions from NYS, Ms Ngirita said she travelled to Germany “for an academic course”.

In her statement she said she worked with a company whose name she could not recall and earned €1,200 (Sh141,546) a month.

ASYLUM APPLICATION

Märkisches Medienhaus said her asylum-seeker status was yet to be confirmed.

“It is not yet decided whether Ann Wambere will have to go back to Africa. Her asylum application is still running. If it is rejected, she will again be faced by the incredibly cruel religious rite. Nearly 60 per cent of the approximately 20 million women in Kenya are circumcised,” the report said.

From the information she recorded with police, she sat her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination in 2008. Then in 2010, she opened a shop which closed down the same year. In 2015, she registered two companies — Annwaw and Ann Wambere Wanjiku Investments — that are being investigated over their role in the scam.

Her signature piercing on her upper lip was in place when she did the 2014 interview.

BEAUTIFUL SMILE

“Two piercings have been drilled through the nose and the lip of the young woman. She rarely shows her beautiful wide smile. It seemed like the fear [of being mutilated] was still there,” said the report.

Ms Ngirita added that she had cut all links with Kenya and was learning German.

“Since she left, she has not mailed or phoned her family,” the publication reported. It added that her lifestyle at the asylum centre involved morning jogs then breakfast, lunch and dinner..

LEGAL PROTECTION  

Asked about a career she wanted to pursue in the future, she said hotel management without much thought.

There are so far no available records to show that Ms Ngirita, whose home is in Naivasha in Nakuru County, was falsely seeking asylum in Germany.

However, Deutsche Welle reports that Germany was as late September 2017 battling the challenge of “refugees” who had “travelled to their countries of origin, sometimes several times, and nevertheless managed to retain the legal protection granted to them as asylum-seekers”.

Some Naivasha residents have been reported to be still clinging to the tradition of circumcising girls, forcing activists like MP Jane Kihara to act. Three years ago, Ms Kihara told a local publication that a number of girls saved from the cut had refused to be reunited with their parents.